Changes to Utica polling locations upset residents, officials

Tuesday

Do you know where you are supposed to vote Tuesday? You might want to check. Twenty-nine of the city’s 51 elections districts have moved after changes from the Oneida County Board of Elections.

Do you know where you are supposed to vote Tuesday?

You might want to check.

Twenty-nine of the city’s 51 elections districts have moved after changes from the Oneida County Board of Elections.

These changes and a lack of notification have upset members of the Utica Common Council and county legislators who represent the city. They say their constituents are being underserved and inconvenienced.

The Board of Elections should have talked to the city about any changes, said Councilwoman Samantha Colosimo-Testa, R-6.

“I don’t understand why they made this decision,” she said. “Where are the cost savings and why wasn’t the city consulted?”

Republican Election Commissioner Pamela Mandryck said the board did reach out to city representatives in the spring and never heard back.

“We never received any input from them, so we had to make our decisions,” she said.

City officials said they never were asked for input.

The board is mailing notifications to all voters affected by the change. Under state law, the cards must be sent by Thursday.

Changing polling locations was necessary for several reasons, Mandryck said.

“We have to make sure we are following election law, HAVA, (Help Americans Vote Act) and responding to safety concerns,” she said.

The Board of Elections also was asked to reduce the number of polling locations to cut costs. The board did not have an estimate as to how much money the moves would save.

“The more substantial savings will happen as election districts are consolidated,” Mandryck said. “Hopefully, that will take place within the next year.”

Council members are not the only ones up in arms. Several county legislators who represent the city say the changes are unfair and disturbing.

Democratic Legislator Rose Ann Convertino, who represents most of the city’s First Ward in the 23rd Oneida County Legislative District, wrote a letter to both election commissioners criticizing them for the changes.

“I find it highly irresponsible that in your position you took it upon yourself to abruptly change polling places which were the regular voting locations for many handicapped senior citizens for many years,” Convertino wrote.

Convertino’s district includes Kennedy Apartments, one of the changed polling sites. Residents who voted there must vote at City Hall now.

Nadia Kelley, a Kennedy Apartments resident, had no idea her polling location changed.

The 23-year-old said she isn’t sure where she is supposed to vote and hasn’t received any notification from the Board of Elections.

“I haven’t heard anything,” she said. “There are a lot of people who live here that vote here.”

Especially troubling for some on the council is the addition of City Hall as a polling place. Two councilmen, Frank Vescera, D-1, and Jim Zecca, D-at-large, have introduced a resolution asking the county to remove City Hall from the list next year.

There are also no more polling places in Utica firehouses.

The decision was made to remove the polling places for accessibility and safety reason, Mandryck said.

Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks said he did not ask for the polling places to be removed but knew the board had issues with handicap accessibility in the firehouses in the past.

Residents in the Fifth Ward, which is represented by Democratic Councilman Jerome McKinsey, will now have to travel outside of the ward to vote.

McKinsey’s district covers Cornhill and contains many poor minority voters.

“We have enough trouble as it is trying to encourage people out to vote,” McKinsey said. “This is only discouraging them more.”

If McKinsey has a problem with the lack of polling places, he should have offered his opinion earlier, Mandryck said.

“He knows the district better than we do,” she said. “We reached out to him, and we never heard back.”

McKinsey could not be immediately reached to comment on Mandryck’s assertion.

There are no polling places in the ward anymore because the board is trying to move all polling places out of public schools as a safety measure, Mandryck said.

Two of the ward’s previous polling locations were Watson Williams and Martin Luther King Jr. elementary schools. There still are several schools serving as polls in other wards.

“You have these schools that are under lock and key 364 days a year,” Mandryck said. “On Election Day, a pedophile could just walk right in.”

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